The Sound of Thunder
by maverick1234567890
Summary: The war for the survival of the Inner Sphere has begun, the stakes are high and not everyone will survive. May the strongest prevail in this epic quest for survival. rated T for violence and some language


The sound of thunder could be heard across the land. The thunder of AC/ 20s that is. A hunchback took aim at a clan made ground hawk and let loose. The AC/20 rounds impacted the Ground Hawk's center torso and ripped and sheared their way into its internal structure, wreaking havoc along their way. The Ground hawk stumbled back but stayed upright, the pilot in a panic as he saw the larger mech take aim for a second volley. In a last ditch attempt the Ground Hawk crossed its arms over its chest just as more AC/20 rounds blistered out of the Hunchback's cannon. They hit home and sheared the hand actuator off of the Hawk and buried themselves into the gaping chest wound, inflicting critical damage to the Hawk's fusion reactor containment unit causing a breach and leaving no time for ejection as the 30 tonner exploded into a massive ball of flames. It collapsed to the ground, a gaping hole with melted metal where a torso once was mere seconds ago.

The Hunchback turned away to continue down the street, when a hatchet equipped, Centurion arrived after following it down the alley. The Hunchback's pilot didn't have any time to react as the massive wedge of metal came down on his mech, shearing off the auto cannon and right arm. The sound of screaming metal was the only discernible, a horrific yelp of mechanical agony, as the axe wedged ever deeper and finally sheared off almost the entire right side. The Hunchback recoiled to the left and nearly fell over and smacked into a building, just before a gauss riffle shell exploded into the cockpit causing a massive explosion, and the now worthless hunk of metal fell to the ground, upper torso ablaze. The Centurion turned and continued down the way the hunchback was headed. Just then an Elemental painter fearsome orange used the mech as a spring board to jump atop a building.

The centurion continued along its way, but a small sentinel came running up behind it and along the way picked up the Hunchback's sheared off arm to use as a club. It didn't even get close. A gauss shell ripped through its torso and blew it up on the spot. The Centurion pilot laughed "May Nicholas Kerensky spit on your grave!" A grenade exploded at the Centurion's feet, fired from an infantry squad in a nearby building. "These freeborn bastards can be such an annoying nuisance" the pilot said to no one in particular as he turned to face them. The squad leader smiled "good job boys now let's pack it up or we'll get roasted". The team grabbed their things and made a beeline to the back of the building as the Centurion's medium pulse lasers sizzled through the air past them. The squad made it out safely from the back, their plan a sucess in setting off the trap. The pilot, fairly annoyed at their escape stepped his mech forwards closer towards the 3 story building only to step on an inferno land mine, setting it off as well as its neighbors, causing a massive fireball to erupt around the Centurion. While not particularly damaging, the mines distracted the pilot enough that he didn't notice the mech coming down from above on top of him.

The now aerial Sidewinder, doing what is referred to as, a Death From Above of DOA for short set its large pulse lasers to spit out damaging beams and with good results. The Centurion took damage to its left shoulder and back. The Sidewinder finished the job by landing on top of the Centurion and ripping off its left arm. The Centurion pilot screamed as his mech collapsed and he nearly passed out from the incredibly jarring impact. The Sidewinder fared much better as it used its jump jets to further slow his fall. He managed to hit the ground with light gyro damage. The Centurion pilot, after finally regaining his wits stood his mech up to face the now standing Sidewinder. The Centurion pilot sneered into the mic at the Sidewinder "You freeborn scum! You will feel my wrath!" The sidewinder pilot laughed back "yeah buddy sure, go burn in hell with your buddy's kay?" The Sidewinder opened up with medium lasers, holding back the large pulse lasers to cut back on heat from the radical maneuver. The Centurion pilot, now seething with pure rage, brought his gauss up and fired, hitting the Sidewinder in the right arm, blowing through the armor but leaving the internals mostly intact. The sidewinder fired with everything it had, blasting through the left torso and singing the right. The Sidewinder charged at the Centurion and punched at the wound in the left side. The Centurion hit the Sidewinder with its remaining left arm, hurting its opponent's right arm badly. The Sidewinder jumped backwards and fired a large pulse laser at the gauss carrying arm. His aim did not fail and the laser impacted the side of the gun and hit internals and capacitors, rendering it useless. The Centurion pilot cursed the freeborn and turned to run but only then realizing that he left his vulnerable backside exposed. The Sidewinder was running critically hot so he only chased after his foe. The centurion pilot didn't do much, he was too terrified to turn and fight. The now cooler Sidewinder took advantage of this and once again unleashed everything it had, aiming for the right torso. His aim didn't fail him this time either, as laser beams poured into the gauss ammunition compartments stored in the right torso and caused a catastrophic detonation of their warheads. The entire right side detonated and launched the Centurion into a building which then collapsed on top of the mech.

The Sidewinder turned and revealed his name plate on the side of his mech reading, 'Brian Demoriee' to a particularly savage elemental. The small clan suit of battle armor jumped up and latched itself to the back of Brian's Sidewinder. The Red painted beast of a machine ripped apart his back armor. Brian swung his mech back and forth to try and shake him off but to no avail, it kept ripping. So in a last ditch effort, he jump jetted up and came crashing down with enough force to knock the elemental off of him. The Elemental's reward for his valor was a 45 ton stomp to the face.

Brian finally reached where everyone was trying to go, the town center. Now a mass battleground, hundreds of mechs tangled in ruthless combat. Brian's radio crackled to life, the sound of the colonel came through. "Alright, mech pilots, we're taking heavy casualties. I'm calling a retreat of all pilots, we cannot let the clans have this area but don't worry. If we can't have it… neither can they. Mechwarriors, pull out". And his voice died over the radio. Brian cursed and turned around. "Mech lead this is alpha 3 I've got Lance mates MIA, can I get assistance for search and rescue?" His radio came back on "negative alpha 2, their calling in some pretty big ass birds to wrap things up and I'm not losing anyone else in this god dammed fight."

Brian cursed and shut the radio. He turned off the main street, "go ahead and court martial me but I'm not leaving my lance mates". He turned down an alley and towards a mangled Enfield, the Enfield belonging to alpha 3. He stayed around the wreck, looking for a downed pilot, named Erik Potouskie. He looked to his left and saw the body of his friend and lance mate. He cursed and hit the console in anger and sadness, then went out to search for alpha 1, Destin Sizlo. He walked his mech towards an Apollo, missing its entire right side. The cockpit lay open and blackened, the ejection charge having been successfully fired. He smiled at the thought of her survival. He spotted a figure in a black coolant suite and green jump suite, typical apparel of a Mechwarrior from the inner sphere. He was about to walk towards them when there was the sound of thunder and two heavily armed dropships arrived into the troposphere. They took aim and blasted the area with missile, energy, and projectile weapons. In a matter of seconds the world around Brian exploded, a massive shockwave ripping through his mech and blowing up his gyro entirely. His mech started to fall and the auto eject was triggered. The cockpit canopy blew open and rockets in his chair ignited and hurled him high up into the air. Brian was stunned at the speed of everything that was happening but his training kicked in and he broke away from his chair and pulled his parachute. He came gliding down next to the battered Sidewinder. He hit the ground hard, his knees collapsing under him as if on autopilot. He sat up in a mess of Para cord and chute fabric and after locating his hand and the release button he hit it and crawled his way out, only to be helped up by Destin.

He stared at her in shock for a moment before smiling and hugging her tightly. She blushed slightly at Brian's actions but slowly hugged back. "I thought you were dead…" Brian said before letting go of her. She nodded, "so did I, after that Annihilator hit me with that first volley from the ultra AC/10, I thought I was screwed pretty tight…"Brian sighed softly, "but I'm glad to see that you're alright, and might I just say, what the hell was that impact? I couldn't see it from my cockpit." He turned just in time to see the dropships leaving behind the destroyed city. Destin put her hand on his shoulder. "That Brian was the might of the inner sphere's naval tech." Brian whistled "damn good thing I'm not a bad guy. Shit like that, I'd be scared for my life." Destin sighed "well, you probably still want to be. If you and I survived the shockwave-". "Then so did some of the clan pilots…" Brian finished for her. "Exactly" she concluded. "Let's move… now."


End file.
